Content Creation, Curation and Distribution in a Web 2.0 World

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From Pottermore to Frankenstein, a new kind of monster is being created

This week, the Publishers Association Statistics Yearbook – collating information from 250 publishers – announced that ebook sales in the UK had increased by 366% last year. Meanwhile, JK Rowling’s Pottermore sold more than £1m of ebooks in its first three days of trading, and has had a billion visits to the interactive website since it opened to all-comers three weeks ago.

One of the less trumpeted innovations of the Pottermore experiment is that Rowling has waived digital rights management for her ebooks – which means they can be shared across multiple devices. The world’s biggest science fiction publisher, Tor, followed suit, in a move that has been welcomed by champions of open access as “tearing up the rulebook”, and will be watched beadily by more conservative players fearful that it will also tear up defences against ebook piracy.